The people smuggling information agency – only eight cents a day

Andrew Bolt has more fortitude that I do. Since he left Insiders and began the Bolt Report I have been blessed with the most excellent starts to my Sundays, which will be extended to an hour this year. But this quizzing of Scott Morrison on illegal migrants is astonishing, even taking into account the previous standards set by the National Broadcaster. These are just the questions:

BARRIE CASSIDY: How many Australian naval ships entered Indonesian territorial waters in December and January?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Do you know the answer to the question?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Why can’t you tell us now?

BARRIE CASSIDY: But why would that piece of information be in any way, why would it compromise the Government’s position?

BARRIE CASSIDY: How much of that report then will be released?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Will it explain how it happened and why it happened?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And it will explain how it happened?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Will the unclassified section of that report explain to the Australian people how this happened, why it happened and why it won’t happen again?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And then we can back that judgment. The Indonesian Navy report argued the incursions may have been intentional, said in this era, navigation equipment is very sophisticated.

BARRIE CASSIDY: What’s false about that?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And what satisfied you of that?

BARRIE CASSIDY: There is a suspicion clearly in Indonesia that it was intentional. How will you disabuse them of that notion?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And do you think based on what you already know they will be satisfied with what you have to say, that without question, it was not intentional?

BARRIE CASSIDY: The Indonesian Navy report that I referred to had a photograph of burn wounds on a hand and it said, and this is the quote, “Resulting from being forced to hold onto the ship’s engine by the Australian Navy.” Does it concern you that an official Indonesian Navy report would make such an assertion?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Can you though dismiss just as lightly a report from the Indonesian Navy as you can a report from an asylum seeker?

BARRIE CASSIDY: How again will you disabuse the Indonesian Navy of their notion?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And you’ve established the facts, of course, without speaking to the person who made the allegations?

BARRIE CASSIDY: But you describe it as a normal process, wouldn’t a normal process, as part of that wouldn’t you talk to the person making the allegations?

BARRIE CASSIDY: What are the factors at work there? Clearly it’s the monsoon season, that’s one factor. How much credit would you give to the previous Government over its PNG (Papua New Guinea) solution?

BARRIE CASSIDY: But the PNG solution wasn’t in place this time last year.

BARRIE CASSIDY: The Indonesian Foreign Minister has, talking about the turn-back strategy, quote, “It threatens the negotiation of a code of conduct designed to repair the relationship.” Clearly he’s offended by the policy.

BARRIE CASSIDY: You are being true to yourself and true to your policy, as you say, but nevertheless it does seem to be offending the Indonesians, to the point where they’re now going to raise this issue with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

BARRIE CASSIDY: What do you think John Kerry would do about it anyway, even if he does regard it as a global issue?

BARRIE CASSIDY: And the other issue that they seem to displease them is the lifeboats issue and they say that that’s more severe than towing back boats; “We strongly protest.”

BARRIE CASSIDY: So you will go on utilising these lifeboats?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Well we’ve seen a video of those lifeboats.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Three days ago an Indian student took his own life at a detention centre in Melbourne. He was in that centre because he overstayed his visa. Could that have been avoided?

BARRIE CASSIDY: Is there a better way to deal with a student who overstays his visa?

BARRIE CASSIDY: So you’re saying there are factors at work here that go beyond the sort of conditions and stresses that come with being in a detention centre?

BARRIE CASSIDY: OK. Now on Friday at a Senate hearing there were 16 denominations, churches, who talked about the Government’s position on the migration act. You want to change it to give you more discretionary powers. Now they said, they say that would allow you to play God.

BARRIE CASSIDY: A former minister though, Chris Evans, said that it gave him too much power, the workload was too great and the churches are saying the taskforce, that if the minister gets it wrong there could be dire consequences for the individual.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Now just finally a report in The Australian yesterday, the Government is considering spending $3 billion to buy giant unmanned drones to patrol the borders that would be used, at least in part, to track asylum seekers and illegal fishermen. Is that under consideration?

BARRIE CASSIDY: If you were to invest that sort of money though in unmanned drones that would suggest you’d think this problem is going to be around for a long time yet?

Who, other than people smugglers, are interested in knowing the answers to any of these question?

A lot of people are interested. They are reasonable questions that, had they been asked of the previous government would not raise an eyebrow on this site. You can’t hide behind the navy on the one hand and then tacitly accuse them of incompetence on the other. The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are. If they do not, then questions should be asked. What exactly is the problem here? Do you object to Minister’s being asked questions about their portfolio? Perhaps you could set out the sort of questions you think should have been asked in this situation or explain why these questions are astonishing.

Perhaps you could set out the sort of questions you think should have been asked in this situation or explain why these questions are astonishing.

Sure – “Minister Morrison, what has been the % fall in boat arrivals under the new government, and why do you think this has occurred?”

“Minister Morrison, how many deaths at sea have happened under your watch, as compared to Labor?”

“Minister Morrison, how do you account for your boyish good looks AND manly baritone?”

Hard hitting, pertinent, and legitimate questions. No other questions are legitimate because they only benefit our enemies, and there is no reason to want to help our enemies (unless you want to kill people – do you want to kill people Alfie?).

A lot of people are interested. They are reasonable questions that, had they been asked of the previous government would not raise an eyebrow on this site. You can’t hide behind the navy on the one hand and then tacitly accuse them of incompetence on the other. The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are. If they do not, then questions should be asked. What exactly is the problem here? Do you object to Minister’s being asked questions about their portfolio? Perhaps you could set out the sort of questions you think should have been asked in this situation or explain why these questions are astonishing.

Do you object to the navy minimizing deaths at sea by bringing the victims of people smuggling as close to the shore of Indon as possible?

Of course complaining about the current Australia Federal Gov’s actions would be met by approval by some sections of the Australian community (media, ALP) and have no consequences while bashing China would have serious economic consequences for wannabe BRIC Indon…

You can’t hide behind the navy on the one hand and then tacitly accuse them of incompetence on the other. The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are.

You can and it is important to on occasion. I suspect Pickering had this one right. The border cross was intentional.

The questions are complete bollocks as all the general punter wants to know is number of boats and number of arrivals. These questions are all Cassidy could dredge up as “gotchas” and it made him look the biased twat that he is. Plus Morrison pissed all over him anyway. It really was man against petulant child.

Also Bolt showed the line of questioning his predecessor received with an actual sinking and lives lost for a comparison. It’s embarrassing and yet another example for why we need to Fire. Them. All and Shut. It. Down.

In the Old Soviet Union ,so beloved and missed by comrade cassidy and the rest of the alpbc ,anyone who treated the government the way they do ,would only have done it once ,the first time would be the last time .The Defenders of the People would swiftly tke them to Lubyanka where they would be “persuaded”to “confess” to Treason ,they would plead Guilty and be taken to the cellars ,where two .22 slugs would terminate their Treason .Lot to be said for this,the shooters would be Very Busy with dissident ,revachist ,deviationists and other scum woul be removed from the temptations of criticism of Government Policies,

The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are.

Really? What are the precise coordinates, then, of the border between Malaysia and Indonesia within the Celebes Sea? What are the precise coordinates for, say, Indonesia’s maritime boundaries with India or Papua New Guinea, and how exactly would Naval personnel divine what international negotiators have not yet determined?

Almost. Every week that passes without any drownings at sea is further confirmation that Labor and its urgers have blood on their hands – and they know it. Hence the gnashing of teeth over the Coalition’s success. Moral grandstanding has been the left’s priority, with asylum seeker drownings a political tragedy first and foremost rather than a humanitarian one. Tragedies happen, accidents happen:

And no, Alf. No one would have complained if Barrie had put the questions to the previous government — that’s the point, he didn’t, at a time when boats were arriving and deaths occuring.

Under the previous government thousands of people, including little babies and toddlers drowned off our shores. A situation now proven to have been completely preventable, easily preventable, and only enabled through the political bastardry of the Gillard government. In service to the Gillard governments policy the Australian navy operated inside Indo borders almost daily – the left approved wholly of this entire situation.

Interesting that Alf and others think that this is a telling point – “the Navy must know where they are, and if they don’t, they are incompetent”. I don’t get the point of such an assertion. If they don’t know where they are, they are lost at sea. They are where they are for a reason, and Morrison is not about to tell Cassidy, or Alf, why. The Navy, Customs and Immigration, Maritime Surveillance all have elements which are under command of the Sovereign Borders task force. The Commander of Sovereign Borders is responsible for where those elements are deployed. He may or may not be incompetent, but so far he has the runs on the board.
As for the Minister being asked questions about his portfolio – these are not about his portfolio, they are about a specific operation which is ongoing. Would Alf expect a Police Commissioner to tell a reporter the specific details of a major operation in advance?
And the observation that had the questions been asked of the previous government it would have been acceptable is ludicrous. No Minister of the RuddGillardRudd government was subjected to any detailed questioning that elicited an answer other that dissembling prevarication. The questions are not astonishing Alf, only the presumption.

Alf clearly missed the ALP talking points memo this morning. Labor MP Michelle Rowland (you know, the fat one who pulled dodgy sickies last year because of a “sick child”) was on Sky this morning “welcoming the news that the boats had stopped” and claiming that “it was all due to Ruddster’s PNG solution”.
Even the ALP have ditched the line that the asylum-shopper policy won’t work … and she didn’t say boo about the “naval konfrontasi”.
The penny has finally dropped that they are on a loser.

Alf clearly missed the ALP talking points memo this morning. Labor MP Michelle Rowland (you know, the fat one who pulled dodgy sickies last year because of a “sick child”) was on Sky this morning “welcoming the news that the boats had stopped” and claiming that “it was all due to Ruddster’s PNG solution”.
Even the ALP have ditched the line that the asylum-shopper policy won’t work … and she didn’t say boo about the “naval konfrontasi”.
The penny has finally dropped that they are on a loser.

The ALP continue to supply contradictory soundbites that can be used against them. It doesn’t matter what Rowland says, because there are lots of extreme Leftists in the party who will never accept a deterrence-first policy, and they can always be relied upon to let the mask slip on Twitter, FB, etc.

If you are seeking non-partisan fairness and professionalism from your journalists then don’t watch or listen to the ABC. If you can’t help yourself and continue to tune in to them then don’t complain. The fewer that support the ABC the quicker they will be closed down.

So all Gillard had to do was pick up the phone to PNG? 4000 people would be alive today if she had of just picked up the phone to PNG?

Why didn’t she then? There are only two explanations if we allow them to indulge in that lie: They agree Julia Gillard was grossly incompetent or maliciously indifferent, choosing instead to play politics with the issue. They must choose.

Completely off-topic, but I watched the film captain Phillips on the weekend. The now-famous bright orange lifeboat is part of the story for the action. Same looking type as the ones that are used to send asylum seekers back onshore.

Highly recommended film – lots of tension and drama.

The actual lifeboat from the story is here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Navy_UDT-SEAL_Museum. I wonder if any of the lifeboats will end up in museums “am actual boat used by the Austrlaian navy to save the lives of immigrants attempting illegal entry by scuttling their own boats.”

The “turn back the boats policy saves money, cuts spending” meme gets a run in Fairfax.

The specially bought lifeboats on which Australia is controversially sending asylum seekers back to Indonesia are believed to cost at least $50,000 but are being used just once each.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that the lifeboats – of which Australia has bought about 12 – are Chinese-made vessels that cost about $46,000 each, not including equipment and modifications which the Australian government is believed to have made.

But the price tag represents a massive saving for the government, as each asylum seeker who arrives by boat costs taxpayers at least $100,000. So far, 90 people have reportedly been returned to Indonesia on two lifeboats. The boats are understood to be written off after a single use, as there is no way to retrieve them from Indonesia.

Bawwie’s questions alone don’t tell the full story.
I watched a replay of the interview and Morrison’s responses were pissing Bawwie off big time.
He kept saying that there would be an unclassified version of the report available in due course.
Bawwie was going the full foot-stamp … “We’re the ABC and we want the full report and NOW!”
The thought that this was going to the CDF who would redact operationally sensitive detail and the ABC would have to wait in line for the de-classified version was tearing Scrotum-face up inside.

They can’t fault the govt on the basis of a cover up – they publicly apologised for the breach of Indonesian waters. So they try to accuse them of doing it intentionally instead – a ludicrous proposition. But nothing is too ludicrous to hang round Morrison’s neck as far as the ABC is concerned.

Ol’ Scrotum Face has gone from attending the footy with Australia’s First Mousse Salesman to being treated with mild contempt by those government Ministers who can even be bothered appearing on his program.

If Indonesia wants to make the price of our relationship contingent on abandoning our sovereignty, then we should reconsider the cost of the relationship.

In between snorting coke and fondling male hookers, did Marty N ever take any game theory units at ANU? He must realise that there is no possible way that Morrison is backing down. Ever. We are not, under any contingency, returning to onshore processing. There’s no “regional architecture”, nothing.

Marty N seems to think that sending cross messages to our ambassador, ringing up the ABC or crying on John Kerry’s shoulder will somehow restore the previous policy. Totally deluded.

Mark “No Ticker” Scott still backs his stewardship and has no intention in closing down that extremely expensive show or “refreshing the format” (i.e. rescuing the sinking show by replacing Leatherface with someone with a shread of credibility).

Remember when Uhlmann substituted in for Leatherface a few years back? Just saying…

People need to remember that the left are cowards and their weakest point is ego which is built around their laughable claim to be “above the partisan fray” intellectuals. See you’ll never, ever hear an urban luvvie admit that they’re “on the left” or indeed that they have any ideology at all. Despite the modern left being the most ideologically pure group of people since the Bolsheviks they viciously protect this self sustaining delusion that they’re “moderate” or “centrist”. The have to, in order to maintain the public’s trust. In fact the standard procedure for pop-leftists in comment sections when confronted with the word “left” is to feign ignorance and mock the word. No, no they’re not ideological and partisan, they just happen to agree with 100% of the lefts ideas and arguments of the day.

So when they or their media arm are officially accused of being biased it’s an existential crises for them. If the governing party – representing over half the country – is publicly accusing them or their favoured media of partisanship then it becomes difficult to sustain the belief and project the image of being a thoughtful, intellectual above the fray “moderate” who arrived at the set of beliefs they have by careful independent thought rather than through simple osmosis and tribalism.

The left desperately want people to think of them as non-partisan because 100% of their “gravitas” is tied up in people believing that they’re non-partisan. Start telling people that Barry Cassidy and Kerry O’brien were ALP PM’s advisors, or that various ABC “personalities” are ALP activists and vicious partisans who abuse middle class Australia’s beliefs on Twitter and suddenly they are tainted in the minds of those people, forever. The bias accusation is like a nuke and needs to be wielded much more readily by conservatives in the public eye.

The increase in boat arrivals during 2009 and 2010 placed significant pressure on immigration detention facilities. The Rudd Government responded to this pressure by expanding the immigration detention network—$202.0 million over five years (including $183.3 million in capital funding, and $18.7 million in related expenses) was allocated in the 2010–11 Budget to ensure appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers. The measure provided for funding of $143.8 million for increased capacity at immigration detention facilities. The measure also provided capital funding for a number of upgrades and enhancements to essential amenities and security at existing facilities, consisting of $22.0 million for Christmas Island, $15.0 million for the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, $1.5 million for Villawood in Sydney and $1.0 million to upgrade existing residential facilities at Port Augusta (South Australia) for unaccompanied minors.

See just how stupid was Gillard..

This bloody stupid..

The decision that many IMAs (boat arrivals) would now be released on bridging visas just like non-IMAs (air arrivals), together with the decision that there would be a return to a single protection visa processing system for IMAs and non-IMAs was a significant departure from previous arrangements.

In 2012, boat arrival numbers continued to climb, largely due to an ‘unprecedented expansion’ of unauthorised boat arrivals from Sri Lanka. The increase in arrivals (together with several months of political deadlock and the rejection of the ‘Malaysia Solution’ by the High Court) placed the Government under increasing pressure to find some alternative policy options and ‘stop the boats’

Gee I wonder if theres any possible link… Old Cassidy must have missed asking that question in his dotage.

I don’t get it; even by the abysmal standards of the left, or should that be standards of abysmality, it is irrelevant whether Australian navy vessels crossed into Indonesian territory because the ships coming from Indonesia are all Indonesian vessels. Why doesn’t the left complain about those persistent and continual encroachments of Australia’s borders?

The possible answers are:

1 The left are fucking stupid.

2 The left are fucking hypocrites.

3 The left are fucking traitors who are prepared to indulge their hatred of Abbott at the expense of Australia’s interest.

But still creatures like Cassidy only exist as long as they are tolerated by the government.

BARRIE CASSIDY: What are the factors at work there? Clearly it’s the monsoon season, that’s one factor. How much credit would you give to the previous Government over its PNG (Papua New Guinea) solution?

The Labour years were unusual in that we had monsoon arrivals. They were fairly rare before.
Evans announced the relaxing of the Howard laws at the start of the monsoon season and got a boatload the same month..

The Immigration figures are a little hard to work around but if you accept a “December quarter” as the “monsoon season” you get this figure.

Dec Qtr: 1622

Thats not set in stone, its when claims were lodged (generally straight away) for maritime arrivals. But its the best figure i can tease out of the department report.

From Jims link….They were in fact told that they would be offered settlement in PNG, he said.

They were also told “a third country option will not be offered, and that neither the PNG nor the Australian governments will be acting on behalf of the transferees in seeking alternative settlement countries to PNG’’, Mr Morrison said.

So effectively “you are here in a place of safety, get used to it”….

I wonder how many granted a protection visa will emigrate and try for greener fields in Europe instead?

And ‘A lot of people are interested’ in the ALP-greenfilth ‘little brown person slaughter-a-thon’ between 2008 and 2013, where Rudd proudly claimed to have butchered 4,200 people. Funny how the ABC did not ask a single hard question about the ALP-greenfilth policies that killed them for all these years, innit?

Remember, the ALP-greenfilth knew their policy would kill people, and never stopped the killing.

Abbott has stopped the deaths.

They are reasonable questions that, had they been asked of the previous government would not raise an eyebrow on this site.

Except the ABC never asked them of the previous government – ever. Not in six years. Not in what Rudd claims was 4,200 deaths.
You spavined dissembling duck-buggering cretin, THAT is the point being made. And you are so biased you missed it.

You can’t hide behind the navy on the one hand and then tacitly accuse them of incompetence on the other.

Normal operational security is being conducted by the RAN. The only people accusing the RAN of ‘incompetence’ is the ABC and mouth-breathing window-licking snaggle-toothed sister shagging left wing vermin like you

The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Been there and done that, have we. I have, and you do NOT. Not only that, some boundaries are disputed, some are poorly charted, some are duplicated, GPS is an electronic system in an environment which is mirder on electronics – and most of the ‘incursions’ I am aware of occurred when the vessel were stationary because they were assisting/boarding SIEV and they drifted a few cables over the boundary line.

This will be a surprise to a drooling imbecile like you, but the ocean does not have lines painted on it.

If they do not, then questions should be asked.

They have been. By competent authorities. These do not include you.

What exactly is the problem here?

Drift, mostly. Oh, and frogfucking fools like you.

Do you object to Minister’s being asked questions about their portfolio?

The ABC sure does, as they proved with near complete silence for six years of ALP-greenfilth incompetent, bloody-handed squandermonkeys.

Perhaps you could set out the sort of questions you think should have been asked in this situation or explain why these questions are astonishing.

I will talk simple.
So you get it.
ABC not ask any questiona like that for six years.

get it now, you imbecilic socialist-fellating goat-bothering pencil-dicked luvvie?

Under the previous government thousands of people, including little babies and toddlers drowned off our shores. A situation now proven to have been completely preventable, easily preventable, and only enabled through the political bastardry of the Gillard government. In service to the Gillard governments policy the Australian navy operated inside Indo borders almost daily – the left approved wholly of this entire situation.

The ABC are wetting themselves with anticipation and rubbing their hands with glee about the latest Snowdens leak, Matty Ns mind boggling protestations and the Manus Island Riot Melee Protest Disagreement Bitch Slap.

Predictiably the ABC has wheeled out the usual experts in International Law to tell us the relationship is stuffed and that Abbott has got it all wrong and they should be taking his International Law 101 subject. Always amazed they can never find anyone in the whole of Australia who reckons the Governments even doing an OK job. It’s always a total disaster and a retarded 5 year old could do a better job.

And to top it off bloody Bill Shorten comes out lecturing Abbott about how to handle the Labor parties F$&k Ups. Is he becoming more irrelevant by the minute? No wonder he’s down in the polls.

If Indonesia has its own version of the Australia Network, it could adopt (or preferably purchase) Insiders and make it a flagship program.

There’s your answer to both the national debt, and what to do with the ABC, and by gum you seem to have solved any residual foreign relations issues as well. Well done, just print up some full colour brochures and get ready to haggle about the price.

No. Just Left-wingers who need ammunition to politically take down a Govt they internally despise…Simply because the Govt leans to the Right side of politics.
We’re not stupid. We know Lefties deeply HATE anything the Right stand for and produce results that are favoured by the public.
It pains the Left knowing they are just pathetically incompetent at pretty much anything that matters. This is especially true with Australia’s borders and people smuggling.

A lot of people on the Left, who want the border protection to fail and who are trying to aid the people smugglers, you mean? Otherwise there is no way your ilk would be so interested in something that’s hardly your business. Otherwise you would not be being so sanctimonious and so keen to be offended on Indonesia’s behalf. Have you never thought that you might really belong there? You might try sneaking in by boat.

“The men and women on the bridge of any naval vessel know exactly where they are and where international maritime boundaries are.”

Knowing exactly where they are is one thing. They are in one place and their GPS would tell them where that is. Knowing exactly where an irregular imaginary line is, in relation to them, would be another. Remember, not everyone is as smart as the Labor/Greens sneer squad.

Perhaps Cassidy could ask why when the problem was obviously so simple to fix, didn’t Julia Gillard simply fix it and stop thousands of people from dying.

Since it wasn’t a fucking secret. Krudd went to the 07 election named after him promising to turn the boats around. Had he simply done so, he could have let all 4 boatees out of detention. Fuck, he could have given them Ministerial portfolios and we would still have been better off.

$46k each for those plastic boats? Basically a Trabant turned upside down? Get those useless overpaid layabouts at Holden to earn their 104 week redundancy pay by making a batch up on their production lines. For that price you can buy a fucking Calais here, with leather seats and a satnav so all parties know when they’re nearing RI waters.

Barry Cassidy has and is another one of these leftist propaganda mongers that has no respect or consideration towards Australia’s security or defence forces. Here he is interviewing our immigration minister (who btw made him look the fool that he is, not that he has ever been a great political intellect) who is and has done an impeccable job towards upholding our border security and he (Barry Cassidy and the ABC) are continually threatening and bellowing for our minister and or defence forces to unveil their tactics and way of operation. This an absolute disgrace that this publicly run media is allowed to continue to be so un Australian and try to score points because our immigration policy under the LNP is finally working and the boats are stopping. Disgraceful behaviour on the part of Barry Cassidy and the Outsiders which is a program that has proved how un Australian it is and is another propaganda wing of the labour green leftist movements. I am appalled and completely flabbergasted that this man and these sort of programs are still allowed to be aired irrespective of the objections from the people of Australia that pay their wages and fund these programs.

[Slight edit. Sinc]

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